


discipline & punish

by knuffled (bigscary)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Gratuitous Smut, Heavy BDSM, Shameless Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 02:13:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21929755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigscary/pseuds/knuffled
Summary: the sea does not like to be restrained. or at least it didn't, not until it met her.ORa mini-series au where percy grew up at the wolf house and makes his way to CHB at like 18 and is absolutely feral and uncontrollable until Annabeth I-Break-In-Wild-Pegasi-For-Funsies Chase tops the fuck out of him
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 86
Kudos: 324





	1. raised by wolves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i came here to drink milk and write dom!annabeth and i'm all out of milk...
> 
> anyways, this fic will probably get me hella kinkshamed but who cares. extended author note at the bottom for those who are interested. also, not to be a slut, but please validate me by commenting if you enjoyed this chapter.
> 
> ps: there's a longer version of the smut scene in this chapter that will be up tomorrow on my blog!

It was still dark when Annabeth woke up that morning in a stranger’s apartment in New Athens. As she rubbed away the sleep from her eyes, she turned to look at the redheaded daughter of Hecate sleeping beside her, curled into her side. The smell of sex still hung heavily in the air, a remnant of the previous night’s exploits. Heat pooled in Annabeth’s stomach as she remembered the night before. It had been so long since she’d slept with a coed that she’d forgotten how eager they were to please in bed.

Annabeth pulled the covers over her exposed chest and sat up, looking around the room to find which dark corner she’d thrown her bra into. Eventually, she found her discarded clothing and got out of bed quietly to start getting dressed. Afterwards, she picked up her phone off the bedside table and scrolled through her unread emails – most of them pertained to the new fountain that she was helping construct in the town plaza – and smiled to herself when she found one from Reyna and Frank wishing her a Happy Birthday and sent them a quick thank you.

Honestly, Annabeth had almost forgotten that today was the day she was turning 24 – she’d been so preoccupied with working on more and more of the layout of New Athens in the city’s infancy that she hadn’t even noticed that the date had crept up on her.

She was about to leave when Alyssa, the daughter of Hecate, stirred and sat up. “Are you leaving?” Alyssa asked, stifling a yawn.

“Yeah, did I wake you?”

“Kind of. Why are you up so early? It’s Sunday,” Alyssa complained.

“I have some work to do,” Annabeth said.

“You work too much. Maybe you should just sleep in with me,” she said before her voice took a sultry tone. “I’m sure I can make it worth your while.”

Annabeth’s lips curled into a ghost of a smirk as she sat back down on the bed and reached for Alyssa, pulling her by the hip and eliciting a giggle from her.

She leaned in, stopping just short of meeting Alyssa’s lips, and whispered against them, “Is that right?”

Alyssa nodded dazedly in lieu of a verbal response.

Annabeth allowed the tension to stretch deliciously for a few seconds longer before she whispered, “Would you like me to make you cum again?”

“Yes,” Alyssa breathed.

“Well, you know what you have to do,” Annabeth said, raising an eyebrow.

“Please, make me cum,” Alyssa moaned.

Annabeth hummed and said, “Mmm, I’m not sure you I believe you want it enough.”

“Please, I promise I do,” Alyssa begged. “I need it so bad.”

When Annabeth remained silent, Alyssa tried desperately to close the gap, but Annabeth only moved her head farther back and laughed at how frustrated the other girl looked. Annabeth cupped Alyssa’s breast before she bent down and pressed a kiss to the other, making Alyssa shiver in response.

“You nearly broke the rules. What do you need before you can kiss me?” Annabeth said softly against her skin.

Alyssa’s eyes darkened as she whispered, “Permission.”

“Good girl,” Annabeth said, smirking before she pulled her in for a searing kiss. When she pulled away, Alyssa looked completely dazed, which made it easy for Annabeth to move her so her back was pressed against Annabeth’s chest. She moaned and quivered against her when Annabeth’s hands found her breasts again and began kneading them.

“Do you like it when I play with your pretty tits?” Annabeth whispered in her ear.

“Y-Yes,” Alyssa groaned. “But I need your fingers in my pussy.”

Annabeth laughed softly and said, “Four times last night wasn’t enough for you? Always such a greedy, little slut.”

Alyssa nodded desperately and panted, “A-Always, ah! Always a slut for you.”

“Beg for it,” Annabeth ordered.

“I need to cum so bad. Please, make me cum! I promise I’ll be a good girl,” Alyssa moaned.

Annabeth trailed her hand down from Alyssa’s chest to the apex of her legs, ran her index finger along Alyssa’s outer folds, and rested her palm over Alyssa’s clit, offering just enough pressure to force her to quiver uncontrollably against her, before finally sliding her finger inside her.

“I don’t know, sweetheart,” Annabeth drawled, twisting her finger inside her and grinning as she watched Alyssa bite down on her own hand to stifle a moan. “If you really were a good girl, you wouldn’t be _dripping_ down your thighs, would you? Always so fucking greedy.”

Before Alyssa could beg again, Annabeth roughly twisted her nipples without warning, making her cry out in pain. Annabeth laughed darkly when Alyssa moaned and pulled back in an effort to elude Annabeth’s grip before realizing that only heightened the pain. Annabeth bit down at the junction of her neck and shoulder and slid two more fingers inside her as she ground her clit roughly with the heel of her palm, making Alyssa squealed and thrust her hips in time with Annabeth’s fingers.

It didn’t take long with the brutal pace Annabeth had set for Alyssa’s orgasm to crash over her with the force of a storm. She let out a long wail, practically sobbing as her body spasmed against Annabeth. Annabeth decided to take mercy on her and simply held onto her and let her ride the waves of her orgasm – on another day, if she was feeling more cruel, she might’ve denied her and worked her up even more before she finally let her cum.

Alyssa panted and looked positively debauched after the shocks of her orgasm, her head resting on Annabeth’s shoulder. Her thighs quivered involuntarily at random intervals, a quirk of hers that Annabeth found weirdly adorable.

When she caught her breath, she turned to look at Annabeth and whispered, “Thank you.”

Annabeth’s lips curled up in a small, genuine smile before she pressed a kiss to the side of Alyssa’s mouth.

“You’re welcome,” she said. “Satisfied now?”

Alyssa breathed a laugh and said, “You’re joking, right? You’re ruining me.”

Annabeth smirked and said, “What can I say? Ruining pretty girls happens to be my life’s calling.”

“Don’t I know it,” Alyssa said tiredly. “Do you need me to do anything for you?”

The offer was tempting – Annabeth wouldn’t have minded fooling around with her a bit more. The girl had quite a talented tongue when she wasn’t using it to mouth off. Nevertheless, Annabeth knew that it was time to leave. She had stayed too long already.

“I’ll pass for today,” Annabeth said, standing up. “I’ve got to get going.”

Alyssa nodded and sat up, drawing the covers over her exposed chest, and ruffled her tousled hair. “Okay, I guess I’ll see you later,” she said, stifling a yawn.

“Yeah, I’ll text you,” Annabeth said, lingering in the doorway. “You should get out of bed too.”

Alyssa laughed and pressed her head back against the bedroom wall. “I will in a minute. I’m pretty sure if I tried to stand right now my legs would give out on me.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes fondly and said her goodbyes one final time before she left the bedroom. The morning sun was annoyingly bright and almost painful to look at on her ten minute walk back to her own apartment. She was in dire need of a shower – she couldn’t exactly show up to work smelling like she’d just come off a marathon fuck session.

A quick shower and change of clothes later, she made her way to met with Dominick, a son of Hephaestus, who was in charge of the construction of the entire plaza. Apparently, something had gone wrong with the plumbing necessary that supplied water to the fountain, and it took most of the morning and afternoon to figure out a suitable solution.

Annabeth ate lunch late that day, around three in the afternoon, and forced herself to take the rest of the day off. It was her birthday after all. Besides, working sixty hour weeks for months was starting to get to her, especially in conjunction with her responsibilities as Camp Director, a role she’d inherited after Dionysus returned to Olympus following the Titan War.

She spent the rest of the day relaxing in her apartment and turned her phone off so no one could reach her. After dinner that night, Annabeth made her way to the top of Half-Blood Hill and sat against Thalia’s tree. Peleus woke from his nap when he noticed her and moved his large head and rested it on her lap. Annabeth scratched his scales idly and stared up at the full moon. It looked larger than normal, but that might just have been her imagination.

A gust of wind blew up the hill and made the leaves sway with the breeze. Annabeth reveled in the sensation of the midsummer breeze against her face and shut her eyes. Hardly anyone ever came up to Half-Blood Hill anymore, making it the perfect place to go when she just wanted to get away from the bustle of New Athens.

Still, she couldn’t help being immensely proud of her work. The old cabins had been renovated and expanded to accommodate the influx of the new children of the minor gods and goddesses after the Titan War. Momentum had taken on a will of its own and before Annabeth knew it, she was in charge of planning the layout of an entirely new city, one that would offer Greek demigods a safe haven like their Roman counterparts had with New Rome.

It was just that the entire thing had begun to wear down on her. She’d been working on the project since she was eighteen years old, immediately after she’d finished working on rebuilding Mt. Olympus – she was twenty four now. Six years was a long time to be working on the same thing, even if it was a labor of love. Every time one task was finished, three new problems came to take its place, like a hydra.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Peleus raised his head suddenly and looked intently at the forest at the base of the hill, and a figure staggered out of the foliage seconds later. Annabeth’s hand immediately went to the rest on the hilt of her dagger, but the moonlight revealed that the figure was human, not a monster like she’d feared.

At first, she thought that the newcomer was female, but upon closer inspection, she realized that it was a man with very long, shaggy hair. His clothes were torn and sullied to the point that it was impossible to tell what color they had initially been, revealing that he was bleeding from multiple wounds, and there was a pronounced limp in his gait too. Despite the state he was in, he radiated an aura that made Annabeth’s instincts scream danger.

She didn’t have long to dwell on it, however, because the foliage ruffled once more and out stumbled the Minotaur. Annabeth could hardly believe her eyes. How many years had it been since she’d seen a monster of that caliber? And what was it doing so close to camp? Annabeth stood up and sprinted down the hill with her knife in hand, but she wasn’t sure that she would be able to make it in time.

The man stilled and turned to face the Minotaur, but his legs gave out and he sank down to one knee as it charged towards him. Given the state he was in and the fact that he was unarmed, Annabeth was certain he was going to get gored by the Minotaur. The best she could hope for was to defeat it quickly and get him some medical attention afterwards, although there was no guarantee he would even survive that long.

However, she was stunned when he grabbed one of the Minotaur’s horns and, in a remarkable display of upper body strength and agility, swung himself up onto the back of its neck. He pulled back on the horn with enough strength to yank the Minotaur’s head upwards, which was a ridiculous feat in of itself, but he also somehow exerted enough strength to snap the horn off the Minotaur’s head altogether, which he then drove into the beast’s eye, causing it to howl in pain.

Who was this guy?

After the Minotaur dissolved into a pile of a golden dust, he looked up and warily noticed Annabeth approaching. Annabeth flinched when he momentarily locked eyes with her – they were a sea-green color that had a savage quality to them – before he lost consciousness. Thankfully, Annabeth managed to stop him before he face planted.

She repositioned him so she could carry him on her back and was immediately struck by how light he was despite his frame. His ribs poked her back as she made her way up the hill, making her realize that his condition was still dire even though he’d survived the Minotaur’s attack.

It took her around ten minutes before she made it to the Apollo cabin. If time wasn’t of the essence, she would’ve gone to the hospital, but she didn’t have that luxury. She deposited him on the porch leading to the cabin and knocked on the door.

“Will!” Annabeth yelled.

Only a few seconds passed before Will opened the door. “Annabeth? What’s going on?”

“I’ve got an injured demigod here,” Annabeth said, gesturing to the newcomer.

Will turned and frowned once he noticed him and muttered, “Oh my gods – he looks terrible.”

“I know,” Annabeth said. “We need to get him to the infirmary right away. Help me carry him.”

“No time for that – I’ll treat him here. Bring him inside and set him on one of the empty beds.”

Annabeth nodded and carried the injured demigod into the cabin and did as Will asked. She pulled up a stool and watched as Will cut what remained of the injured demigod’s clothes so he could get a better look at his injuries. It took a few minutes for Will to survey everything completely, and once he did, he pressed a hand to his forehead and swore under his breath.

“What? What’s wrong?” Annabeth asked.

“He’s even worse than I thought. He’s lost a significant amount of blood and has several wounds that seem like they’ve been infected for a while. Add in some broken ribs, a sprained ankle, and what looks to be a fractured wrist. Honestly, it’s a miracle he’s still alive,” Will explained.

“Fuck,” Annabeth muttered. “Do you think you can help him?”

Will sighed and said, “I’ll try my best, but honestly, it mostly depends on him and how quickly his body heals naturally, so I can’t really promise anything. For now, I’ll get some first aid done on him and then move him to the hospital. He’ll have a better chance of recovering there.”

“Set up rotating shifts to keep an eye on him,” Annabeth added. “I’ll stop by from time to time when I’m free.”

“Sure, I’ll talk it over with some of the nurses at the hospital,” he said.

“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Annabeth said, standing up. “Let me know if you need anything.”

“Will do,” he said. “I’ll be sure to keep you posted.”

With that, Annabeth left the cabin and made her way back to her apartment. It was certainly a much more eventful night than she had anticipated. Seeing the Minotaur so close to Camp was one thing, but seeing a half-dead demigod kill it unarmed was another thing entirely.

What was particularly strange was that he seemed to be in his teens or early twenties. Demigods did not survive that long without finding either Camp Jupiter or Camp Half-Blood, especially one as strong as him. His mere presence would probably attract monsters to him like bees to honey.

Annabeth pushed her growing suspicions to the back of her mind. It wouldn’t do to dwell on them now, but once he regained consciousness, Annabeth would question him herself. Her instincts told her that it wasn’t a task she could leave to someone else, especially as Camp Director. Having a plan of action helped soothe her nerves somewhat, but she still couldn’t help feeling an impending sense of dread, but all she could do for now was wait.

:::

He regained consciousness five days afterwards when the rotation had Annabeth watching over him. She had been messing around on her phone when she heard him groan and shift before opening his eyes. Only a moment of quiet passed before he sat bolt upright, scanned the room, and noticed her sitting in a chair by the window. Without warning, he lashed out at her with one arm, aiming for her windpipe. Had it had been anyone else, he would almost certainly have succeeded, but she managed to evade the strike by the skin of her teeth.

In the time that it took for her to get out of her chair, he’d already leapt off the bed towards her with his hands outstretched. This time, she couldn’t avoid getting tackled and falling over. He immediately seized his advantage by pinning her and wrapping his hands around her throat. Once again, the feral look in his eyes froze her, and Annabeth felt an emotion she hadn’t felt in years: fear.

She struck at his face with the palm of her hand, breaking the bridge of his nose, which forced him to loosen his grip. Even though it was only for a second, Annabeth took the opportunity to flip him onto his front and, in one fluid motion, twisted one arm behind his back while she sat atop the other shoulder blade. He tried to push himself up with his free hand before realizing it was impossible with the brunt of her body weight on top of his shoulder and tried instead to buck her off of him, but Annabeth maintained control and twisted his arm even more sharply, making him grunt with pain.

“If you don’t stop struggling, I’ll dislocate your shoulder,” Annabeth warned.

He had enough sense to know that she wasn’t bluffing and stilled beneath her, but she could still feel how taut his body was underneath her. At this proximity, Annabeth had expected him to smell revolting, given his shabby appearance, but what greeted her instead was a heady musk with notes of smoked cedar, crushed elderberry, and sea salt, causing her body to feel hot and her mind to cloud.

After giving herself a second to regain her composure, Annabeth said, “I’m going to stand up now, but you have to promise not to attack me again.”

When he remained silent, she pushed down on his shoulder with her free hand and twisted his arm further. It would only take a bit more pressure for her to pop his shoulder out of its socket, a fact that he realized because she heard him growl and say in a low voice, “Fine. I promise.”

After a few seconds, Annabeth released his arm and stood up but remained on guard as she watched him get to his feet. He glared at her while he wiped the blood off his nose, but Annabeth was used to her fair share of stare downs with physically imposing men. Granted, he was different from the usual muscle-heads that she’d dealt with – unlike their impractical, overly muscular bodies, his body was incredibly lean and shaped purely for combat prowess. On top of that, he also displayed the kind of remarkable speed and agility that one typically associated with predatory cats.

She didn’t want to admit it, but if he had been fully recovered, there was a good chance he would have been able to strangle her to death. Even stranger still was the fact that this realization seemed to thrill her instead of terrifying her like it should have. How many years had it been since she’d been evenly matched in a physical confrontation? How long had it been since she’d felt her life was in danger?

“Who are you?” Annabeth asked.

He maintained unflinching eye contact as he answered, and when he spoke his voice was low and gravelly like he wasn’t accustomed to speaking. “Percy,” he said. “Who are you?”

“I’m Annabeth, director here at Camp Half-Blood. I brought you here after you lost consciousness fighting the Minotaur,” she explained.

Percy looked around the room and said, “So this is Camp Half-Blood.”

“How did you get here without the help of a satyr? It’s supposed to be impossible to find Camp on your own,” Annabeth asked.

When he remained silent, Annabeth was about to ask another question when his stomach rumbled loudly, causing her to pause and purse her lips.

“You must be hungry,” she said. “I’ll ask someone to get you some food.”

Without waiting for his response, Annabeth found a nurse walking outside his room and asked her to bring some food and water. Annabeth decided it would be better to hold off on the questioning until he was done eating. Maybe it would make him more pliant when she questioned him. Percy stared at her the entire time they waited while Annabeth dug her nails into her palms in an effort to distract herself from the overpowering scent emanating from him.

Why did he smell like that?

She felt almost feverish.

After what felt like an hour, the nurse arrived with a plate of food and a bottle of water that she handed to Annabeth. When she lingered for some reason, Annabeth noticed that her skin appeared flushed and that her eyes had glazed over. It was only after Annabeth told her that it was fine for her to leave that she actually left the room, but even then she did so with great reluctance.

Annabeth handed Percy the plate and the bottle of water but found herself perturbed by the nurse’s odd reaction. Then something like a theory occurred to her, so she stood and pushed her chair away from Percy. When she was a few feet away from the doorframe, Annabeth noticed that the scent was not as potent here and that it was much easier to think.

Maybe the nurse’s reaction could be explained by her having stepped within range of the strange scent that clung to Percy. The realization gave Annabeth pause and forced her to re-evaluate her initial assessment of him. It seemed that Percy wasn’t just physically dangerous – this scent was a formidable enough threat on its own if it had the power to incapacitate you just by being _near_ him.

By the time she focused on Percy again, he was already done eating and the bottle of water was totally empty. Annabeth frowned – it hadn’t even been a minute since she’d given them to him.

“Do you want more?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said.

Annabeth requested more food and waited for him to finish his meal before she continued with her questioning.

“Where did you come from?” she asked.

“Wolf House.”

The name echoed faintly in her memory, although she couldn’t remember where she’d heard it before. “How’d you find your way here?” Annabeth asked.

“The wolves showed me the way,” he answered.

Annabeth frowned. “What? What does that mean?”

“The wolves,” Percy repeated, using his hands to mimic claws.

“I know what a wolf is,” Annabeth snapped. “I’m asking how it’s possible that they showed you the way here.”

“I asked them to,” he said simply.

Annabeth felt her irritation mounting with his cryptic responses.

“Listen here, you little shit. The only reason you’re still alive is because I brought you into _my_ camp. I can just as easily kick your sorry ass out the curb and let you fend for yourself, so I suggest you start answering my questions instead of acting like a smart ass,” she said.

He did not respond well to that – eyes flashing, teeth bared – but he also seemed to know that he was in no shape to take her on. Annabeth could see that he was barely restraining herself – but at least it seemed that he wasn’t completely feral.

Feral.

All at once, Annabeth found herself making sense of his cryptic responses and remembering where she’d heard the name Wolf House before.

“Are you saying the Goddess Lupa sent you?” she asked.

When Percy nodded reluctantly, Annabeth felt a flood of relief wash through her. Good. That was one mystery down at least, but it was an answer that only raised more questions. If he was telling the truth, then Lupa should have directed him towards Camp Jupiter instead of sending him all the way across the country to Camp Half-Blood. Also, Annabeth knew from other accounts that Lupa tended to foster demigods at the Wolf House for only a few years at most before sending them out into the wild, but it seemed like Percy had grown up there or something judging by his demeanor.

Maybe it would be a good idea to Iris Message Reyna about it, Annabeth mused. There was a chance that she knew something. Things might make more sense to question after she’d spoken to her first. More than anything, Annabeth wanted to get away from Percy as soon as possible – that weird scent of his was beginning to disturb her.

Annabeth stood up and said, “I have more questions, but they’ll have to wait until you recover. In the mean time get some rest. Our doctors here will take good care of you. Just ask if you need anything from them.”

She paused for him to acknowledge what she’d said, but he just continued to watch her placidly. “Also, I trust you will behave yourself. If I hear that you’ve attacked anyone else, I’ll force you to leave here. Understand?” she added.

Although he didn’t answer her, Annabeth got the impression he understood her. At the very least, she knew that having beat him into submission was more meaningful than she’d initially thought. It won her some fear and respect. He wouldn’t be able to act however he wanted if there was someone who could best him physically.

She gave him one final look before she left his room. On the way out of the hospital, she resolved to ask Mitchell to give him a hair cut and some fresh clothes so that he wouldn’t look like he was raised by wolves.

Annabeth smiled wryly to herself. Raised by wolves: what an apt expression for her present situation.

There were still a lot of things about him that didn’t quite add up, and Annabeth wasn’t comfortable with that. Perhaps it had been too quiet for too long and Percy’s arrival was the harbinger of something bigger to come. There hadn’t been a prophecy for over half a decade after all. Either way, Annabeth didn’t like what his arrival implied. All she could hope was that whatever storm he brought with him was not as bad as she was beginning to fear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's some dom!annabeth just in time for the holiday season!
> 
> on a more serious note, i would advise against reading if you don't like smut or if you found what you read in this chapter to be excessive because this was about as tame as it'll get. granted, i don't have the other chapters written yet, but consider this fair warning. 
> 
> although the pacing isn't as quick as i'd like, i'm pretty happy with how this chapter turned out! 
> 
> definitely took a lot of inspiration from resident fandom goddess greenconverses's fic "would it kill you if we kissed" and from bipercabeth's godtier smut because i'm not very good at writing smut. 
> 
> anyhow, hope you enjoyed, and i will probably give you my first born if you comment


	2. bloodflood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no smut in this chapter, but there will be in the next, i think! title is from "bloodflood" by alt-j. if you enjoyed, please leave a comment and make my day!

The waves were choppier the following week. The beach overlooking the sound was besieged by churning, gunmetal gray waves tearing away at the sand, like the sea sought to devour the earth. Annabeth rarely went to the beach as it was – she never felt safe there – but she had even better reason to avoid it now.

She hardly registered time passing that week – an hour spanned the length of a year and a day passed in the blink of an eye. There was something heavy in the air. It was like waiting for an inevitable storm, not the kind you marveled at behind your bedroom window, but the kind where thunder rang too closely, too loudly in your ears and the torrential downpour sounded like gunfire.

Annabeth couldn't help feeling like she had brought a ticking time bomb into her camp. All week her thoughts strayed to Percy, and more than once she'd felt short of breath, like his hands were still wrapped around her throat. When he was finally recovered, she knew that he would confront her, and this time he wouldn't be slowed down. This time he would be at his best.

If Annabeth was being honest, she wasn't sure she could handle his best, although she would never admit that out loud. It wasn't her fault though – years of peace had dulled her instincts. She was grossly out of practice. The traces of the fiery sixteen year old driving a dagger through Kronos's heart in the ruins of Mt. Olympus seemed a distant dream from another lifetime.

Her conversation with Reyna had done nothing to assuage her mounting anxiety either. She had Iris Messaged the praetor of New Rome a few days after her skirmish with Percy in the hospital to get her opinion on the situation. Although they weren’t particularly close, there had always been a mutual respect between them given that they were both leaders of their respective communities.

When her face showed on the Iris Message, Reyna had smiled tiredly and said, “What a surprise. It’s not often that I hear from you.”

“Life’s been busy,” Annabeth said.

“Isn’t it always?” Reyna said, picking at a fraying strand of her cape. “How is New Athens coming along?”

“Good,” Annabeth said, sighing. “It’s just that there is always more to do. You have to come by once it’s finished. I’ll give you a tour.”

Reyna smiled again, more warmly this time. “I’ll have to take you up on that offer. I could certainly use a break.”

“Being praetor sounds stressful,” Annabeth offered.

Reyna pressed her hand to her forehead and sighed. “Not much more than being Camp Director, I would imagine, but you’re right. Neither of us enjoys playing politics and dealing with bruised egos, but that’s not something we can avoid, I’m afraid.”

“You’ve got that right,” Annabeth said, laughing.

“Well, enough of my rambling. I’m sure you’re calling for a reason,” Reyna said, straightening in her seat.

Annabeth bit her lip and tried to think of how best to phrase what she wanted to say. “There’s a new arrival here at camp that concerns me, and I wanted to get your opinion,” she said.

Reyna raised an eyebrow and said, “Well, color me intrigued. It’s not very often to see you bothered by another demigod.”

“He’s – well, he’s _different_. The main reason I wanted to ask you about him was because he said that he came from the Wolf House,” Annabeth said.

Reyna frowned. “That’s probably a lie. If he was from the Wolf House, he would’ve been sent to Camp Jupiter, not all the way across the country.”

Annabeth nodded and said, “Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought at first too, but I don’t know – I get the sense that he isn’t lying.”

When Reyna was silent, Annabeth said, “Do you know a demigod named Percy?”

At the mention of his name, Reyna’s countenance darkened, which did nothing to soothe Annabeth’s growing sense of despair. Reyna screwed her eyes shut and exhaled sharply.

“So that’s where he’s gone,” she muttered.

“You know him?”

Reyna opened her eyes and nodded. “Yes, he came to New Rome, early last summer. At first, we tried to accommodate him, but it became clear that we couldn’t control him. He picked fights wherever he went and clashed with me and Frank over the right to become praetor.”

“What happened?” Annabeth asked.

“He nearly killed Frank. Then when I intervened, I didn’t do much better. Neither of us were prepared for him. Maybe it was because we were so out of practice. I can’t remember the last time I was in a fight to the death, but Percy, on the other hand, seemed very accustomed to it,” Reyna said.

She shifted her toga so Annabeth could get a better look at her shoulder, and Annabeth stiffened when she saw a long jagged scar that ran from the top of Reyna’s shoulder down the side of her stomach, stopping above of her hip.

Reyna must’ve noticed Annabeth’s shocked expression because she grimaced and said, “You should see Frank’s. He was far worse. Spent nearly three weeks in the hospital.”

“So how did you get him to leave?” Annabeth asked.

“It took me and a battalion of other legionnaires to fight him off. Even then, he killed seven of them and injured thirteen others before we succeeded,” Reyna said.

“Jesus,” Annabeth muttered.

Reyna nodded and said, “He’s dangerous, Annabeth. He’s not the type that listens to logic or reason. You need to get rid of him, or you’re in for bloodshed.”

That had been nearly three days ago, but Annabeth still hadn’t made a decision on whether or not to exile Percy from camp. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Reyna or her judgment – it was more so that she wasn’t sure it was fair to exile someone for a crime they had yet to commit. At the same time, Annabeth knew that as Camp Director, her obligation was to the citizens of New Athens and that she couldn’t jeopardize their safety for the sake of one camper. Furthermore, if he was strong enough to push Reyna to the brink, then he was truly dangerous indeed. Annabeth knew firsthand that the praetor of New Rome was powerful enough to rival her.

Despite knowing all these things, there was some resistance to taking preemptive action against Percy in her that Annabeth didn’t understand. Her indecision lasted too long, however, and the window to act slipped away because Percy finished recovering only a few days later.

:::

He found her in the forest behind New Athens. In her younger days, Annabeth had played Capture the Flag or tamed wild pegasi there, but now she went there for peace and quiet. Nonetheless, when he found her that day, Annabeth had been coaxing a wild pegasus to eat an apple she’d brought with her.

The pegasus was as white as fresh fallen snow and very haughty, even more so than other pegasus. It took Annabeth nearly half an hour for the pegasus to even trust her enough to approach her. Eventually, it allowed her to get closer and sniffed and examined the apple before taking a tentative bite. As it ate, Annabeth took the opportunity to run her fingers through its white mane and marveled at how the thin hairs appeared incandescent beneath the dappled sunlight.

That was when she noticed someone was watching her. When she turned around, she almost didn’t recognize who it was, but the newcomer’s eyes gave his identity away. Percy looked completely different with his haircut, now that his face was no longer obscured. Although it wasn’t a word typically used to describe men, Annabeth couldn’t help thinking he looked beautiful. Not beautiful like a jewel safely stored behind a glass window but beautiful like the curve a hawk’s talons, somehow elegant and savage at the same time.

“How’d you find me?” Annabeth asked.

Percy shrugged and moved out into the copse. “Wasn’t hard. You’re the only one around here that smells strong.”

At this proximity, that weird scent of his washed over her, nearly making her stagger. It was stronger now than it had been before. It had already been potent enough beforehand, but now it was taking a lot of conscious effort to maintain a hold of herself. She found herself clenching and unclenching her fingers in an effort to resist the urge to run her fingers through his hair. How much more intense would the smell be if she buried her face in the crook of his neck?

Annabeth shook her head in a futile effort to clear her mind. “What do you want? I doubt you made it all the way out here just for some fresh air,” she said.

Percy’s lips curled upwards in the ghost of a smile, but the gesture conveyed malice more than humor. “You know why I’m here,” he said.

“You’ll have to spell it out for me,” Annabeth said.

When he sauntered towards her, Annabeth’s hand twitched towards her thigh before she remembered she hadn’t brought her dagger with her.

“I want to fight for the right to rule,” he said.

Annabeth blinked. “The right to rule?”

Percy nodded and said, “Yes, unless you’re fine with me living as I please and ignoring your rules, but something tells me you wouldn’t agree to that.”

“If you’re staying here, you have to follow the rules,” Annabeth replied. “What makes you think you have any right to lead the camp as a newcomer?”

Percy shook his head and said, “You misunderstand. I have no wish to command. All I want is to do as I please.”

“That’s not the way society works,” Annabeth said, narrowing her eyes.

Percy shrugged and sad, “The strong do not need to bend to what society wants.”

“You think just because you’re powerful, you get to do whatever the fuck you want?”

Percy frowned, like what she’d said was absurd. “Isn’t that only natural? Do you think a dragon cares about the opinions of a rat?”

“You’re not a dragon, and they aren’t rats,” Annabeth said, feeling her irritation mounting.

“That’s not how I see it,” Percy said.

Annabeth grit her teeth. What a little shit. There was no point trying to philosophize with him. He didn’t seem like he would change his mind unless he was beaten into submission.

“So you want the two of us to fight then?” Annabeth asked.

When he nodded, Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest and said, “I don’t see what I have to gain by fighting you.”

At this, Percy offered a wolfish grin. “Is your life not prize enough?”

Annabeth felt her jaw tighten. Reyna was right. The boy didn’t listen.

:::

A small crowd formed at the training arena that night in preparation for Annabeth’s fight with Percy. Even though they didn’t know what was at stake, they still seemed to sense that this fight was more important than a regular bout of sparring. Annabeth did her best to ignore them, but she could catch scraps of whispered conversations amongst them.

The moon was missing from the sky that night, and the darkness seemed overbearing. There was a chill in the wind that seemed out of place for a night in August and tension hung in the air, thick enough to cut with a knife.

Not for the first time, Annabeth wished Chiron were still here and in charge. He would probably know how to deal with this situation better than she did. He might’ve have been able to figure something out that wouldn’t end in bloodshed.

At the other end of the arena, Percy looked through an assortment of imperial bronze and celestial gold weapons to fight with. His face was perfectly blank, so Annabeth couldn’t tell if there was anything he preferred or didn’t. She had already begun to size him up – looking for clues in his mannerisms, body language, facial expressions, eye movement – anything to give her an idea of just what exactly she was up against. Unfortunately, he gave her nothing to work with.

Eventually, he settled on picking out a half-and-a-half sword made out of celestial bronze. Annabeth watched as he gauged the heft of it in his hand, trying to find its center of gravity, before he moved on to some test strikes with the blade. She’d already had a glimpse of his speed and combat prowess in the hospital, but she was taken aback when the blade vanished in a blur, moving faster than her eyes could track. A pit formed in her stomach – he moved the blade as if it weighed nothing more than a reed and it was clear that he knew how to use it. It was hard to tell under the cover of darkness, but she thought she saw his lips curl upwards in the ghost of a smile.

When he turned towards her, the feral quality inherent to his eyes seemed amplified. Annabeth’s senses already began to sharpen as he walked over to her. It felt less like she was fighting another human being and more like she was preparing to get pounced on by a wild animal. There was something about him that felt definitively inhuman, something about the way he carried himself that screamed that he wasn’t like other people, that he was a different breed altogether, like he was designed to hunt human beings, not live amongst them.

“Are you ready?” Annabeth asked, clearing her throat.

When Percy nodded, she said, “We’ll go three rounds. First to two victories will be the winner.”

Percy barked a laugh. “Do all your opponents give you three chances to take their lives or are you trying to insult me? No, in a fight to the death there can only be one round.”

Annabeth grit her teeth and unsheathed her dagger. “Fine by me.”

They stepped closer to each other, close enough for Annabeth to see the faint splay of freckles on the bridge of his nose. If the crowd was making any noise now, she could no longer hear it. Her hands were not clammy – years of experience had seen to that. Fear vanished and was replaced by a savage excitement as the thrill of the hunt consumed them both.

Percy struck first, his blade moving faster than it had even during his test strokes. Annabeth stepped back, but the tip of his sword caught her cheek and left a small cut. Her senses sharped impossibly further.

This was happening.

Annabeth made a move of her own, stabbing for his inner thigh. Percy parried her strike, but Annabeth was already in motion for her next attack. She swept out with her leg to try to knock him off his feet. The maneuver failed, but that was expected. All she needed was for him to be off balance for her next move. Percy neatly jumped over her leg, as anticipated, and Annabeth continued by thrusting forward with her free hand, aiming for his windpipe. He reacted in the nick of time and ducked to evade her strike, but his pressure stopping her dagger had lessened imperceptibly, which was what Annabeth had been waiting for.

She thrust at his stomach, but Percy failed to avoid it. She felt a surge of triumph when the blade cut through his shirt and slit the side of his torso.

Percy retaliated with a savage strike with the pommel of his sword against the side of Annabeth’s head. Her skull burst with pain, nearly leading her to get decapitated by his subsequent strike, but she managed to parry it with her dagger just barely.

The fight seemed to last an eternity as they exchanged blows. Annabeth realized immediately how he had nearly killed Frank and given Reyna so much trouble. The way he fought had no rhyme or reason. Everything was unpredictable and improvisational. He did things she had never seen anyone else do, such as using the flat of his blade as a blunt instrument or taking advantage of the soil they fought on to subtly unseat her balance. Percy utilized all of his appendages in battle and they were just as deadly as the sword he carried – she could block his blade only to catch a knee to her ribs or an open palm to her ear.

What frustrated her most was that she was unable to get a sense for him at any point in the fight. No matter how strong her opponents had been in the past, after a certain amount of time fighting, she got a sense of their habits and unconscious biases. Perhaps they favored attacking from one side or found it uncomfortable to defend attacks from a certain angle. All human beings had preferences that they were unaware of.

Percy, it seemed however, was an exception to that rule. Just when she thought that he preferred slashes to thrusts or that he tended to pivot with his left foot when he dodged, he would do just the opposite with equal prowess and throw off her assessment.

However, what made her realize that she would lose the fight was that strange fucking smell that clung to him like a perfume. At the beginning of the fight, her senses had been so sharpened and focused on her survival that she had been able to tune it out, but as the fight progressed, it began to seep through her focus. It would cause her to respond sluggishly or lose concentration for just fractions of a second, but against an opponent of Percy’s caliber those fractions meant the difference between life and death.

As a result, she gradually accumulated more and more injuries as the fight drew on. The fact that she was woefully out of practice only sealed with greater certainty that this fight would end with her loss. Despair settled in and she began to get increasingly desperate. Her attacks became progressively sloppier and her defenses more lethargic.

A line of searing pain burst through her when Percy cut the side of her face, carving from the tip of her ear down to her jaw. Blood seeped into her eye as he moved to his next attack. Time slowed down. Annabeth could see that his next strike would skewer her stomach and lacerate her intestines. Even if she were to evade him, Annabeth honestly could not see how to win the fight. At best, she was prolonging the inevitable.

Instead of fear, the emotion that erupted in her at that moment was anger. White, hot anger. This little, eighteen year old fucker who she’d saved from certain death was trying to take her camp from her. _Her camp_. The one that she spent the last half-decade of her life building, brick by fucking brick.

But what infuriated her more than anything he had done was the fact that she feared him. Deep down in her heart, she was afraid she would lose, and that was something she could not abide by. She had killed the enemies of _literal fucking gods_. She had looked into the golden eyes of the Lord of Time and stabbed him in the heart and watched as his golden blood coated her fingers. To think that she was afraid of a stripling like Percy was an insult she couldn’t bear.

For once in her life, Annabeth allowed herself to give in to that dark part of her that fought constantly with her for control of her soul, the part of her that sought to dominate and bend others to her will, the part of her that would rather die than allow herself to be ruled by another.

Percy’s sword drew closer to her stomach, but she didn’t step away from it. Instead, she moved slightly to the side. It sank into her flesh and brought with it a bolt of pain unlike anything she’d ever experienced, but that didn’t matter now. Instead, Annabeth curled her free hand around the blade and barely registered how it sliced into her palm and fingers.

For the first time during their fight, Percy looked surprised. Percy tried to unsheathe his blade, but again Annabeth gripped it with all her strength and it would not budge. They locked eyes, unable to look away from each other, and the sound of her blood dripping from the blade seemed unnaturally loud in her ears.

Annabeth’s subsequent movements were utterly unplanned and transpired with an addictive fluidity. She hooked her foot behind Percy’s right heel knocked him off balance. The maneuver would have failed, but Percy knew he couldn’t surrender his blade if he wanted to win, which locked him in place and made it impossible for him to evade her. As Percy fell to the ground, Annabeth pressed her knee to his stomach and followed him down, carefully holding his sword so it didn’t drive further into her as she fell. When he hit the ground, her knee knocked the breath out of his lungs, giving her a split second to press her knife to his throat.

By the time he recovered his breath, she had her entire body weight on top of him with her knife pressed against his throat, drawing a thin trickle of blood, her hand still wrapped around his sword with a death grip.

“Yield,” Annabeth grit out.

For a few seconds, Percy silently glared up at her, so Annabeth dug her knife further into his skin. With a little more pressure, she would cut his windpipe and kill him. Percy realized this and finally released his sword and held his palms up in surrender.

His voice was low and raspy as he said, “I yield.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pacing for this story is just going to be slower than i had first thought. this fic demands to be slow burn, so who am i to resist. percy also doesn't sound like a real human being, but i think his dialogue is cool so who gives a fuck.
> 
> anyhow, hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! i appreciate any feedback/comments you might have!


	3. the greater good

Annabeth woke to the sound of falling rain pattering against a window pane, punctuated intermittently by a shrill, mechanical beeping noise, and an aching pain in her side that was somehow both dull and sharp at the same time. When she opened her eyes, the fluorescent light above her bed nearly blinded her, but when she raised her hand to shield them from the glare, she noticed that her hand was a lot heavier than normal. Her entire body pulsed with pain, making the task of sitting up excruciating, but she managed it all the same and blearily took in her surroundings.

Once she regained some semblance of clarity, her lips curled downwards when she saw the IV drip running down the length of her right arm. Her eyes fell to the heart rate monitor by the window before moving to the bedside table to her right where someone had left a bouquet of flowers with a get-well card taped to the plastic. It was hard to make out the handwriting scrawled across the card even though she was sitting right beside it.

Whatever they had sedated her with made it near impossible to form a coherent thought. To make matters worse, her sensitivity had heightened to an uncomfortable degree. On top of the lights and the awful noise the monitor made every few seconds, someone had taken the liberty of removing her clothes and slipping her into a hospital gown, and the fabric felt starchy and uncomfortable against her bare skin. Even the sterile quality of the air made it painful to inhale.

The pain in her sides didn’t help either. She tentatively probed the affected area with her free hand and inhaled sharply when a horrible piercing pain shot through her. The pain was so vivid, in contrast to how languid everything else was, that it jolted her memory. It felt like Percy’s sword was stabbing her at that very moment. The mere thought of him made her muscles tense immediately.

If she was in the hospital, who was handling him? What sort of chaos was he causing without her there to stop him? It was hard to tell with the heavy downpour outside, but it seemed that New Athens wasn’t burning to the ground, at the very least.

She screwed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. It was useless to worry about the camp when she was in such critical condition. Mentally, she replayed the fight with Percy and tried to fathom how she could have possibly thought intentionally getting stabbed was a good idea, but no answer made itself clear to her.

The clock hanging above the door frame to her left showed that it was early in the evening. With great effort, she pulled the bouquet towards her and examined the card on the front. It was Piper’s messy handwriting informing her that she had dropped by the visit when Annabeth had been asleep before wishing her a speedy recovery and promising to visit her again soon.

Seeing her friend’s familiar handwriting brought a small smile to her face, but her eyelids persistently continued to droop. It was hard to say if it was because of the injuries or all the painkillers flooding through her veins that made her feel so tired even though she had only been awake for a few minutes at best, but already sleep beckoned to her.

She was about to sink back into the bed when there was a commotion outside her door. It sounded like two people were arguing, but she couldn’t make out what was being said. However, only seconds later, the door burst open and a blonde man strode into the room, a dark look on his face, even as an orderly feebly tried to stop him.

Annabeth blinked owlishly and said, “You don’t look very happy to see me, Jason.”

“Gods, look at you. I heard what happened, but I didn’t believe it until now,” Jason said, clenching his jaw. “What were you _thinking_ , Annabeth?”

“Nice to see you too.”

For an instant, Jason’s lips quirked upwards before setting into a hard line again. “This is no time for jokes. You almost died, Annabeth. Will told me that if you had been brought to the hospital even five minutes later, you would’ve been beyond saving.”

Annabeth sighed and said, “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“I don’t want you to say anything. I just need you to understand that what you did was very stupid, and I would like it if you didn’t do something like that again,” Jason said.

Despite her heavy injuries, Annabeth found herself glaring at him. “I did what I thought was best. There was a threat, and I dealt with it. That’s all there is to it. Doing nothing would’ve been even more dangerous,” she snapped.

“You can’t mean to tell me there was no better way,” Jason said, frowning.

“Like I said,” Annabeth repeated. “I did what I thought was best.”

Jason stared at her for a while before deflating in front of her. Annabeth felt her heart squeeze in her chest at the look of unabashed concern on his face and instantly felt bad for being so glib with him when he was only worried about her.

Annabeth looked to the orderly who was still hanging awkwardly in between the door-frame and said, “We’re fine. You can leave us.”

The orderly looked between her and Jason before nodding tentatively and leaving. Once he was gone, Jason shot her a look of gratitude before sinking into one of the chairs by the window, cupping his face with his hands. There was a dull roar of thunder and the wind howled against the windows, making the entire building creak in protest.

After a while, Jason exhaled heavily and whispered, “I’m glad you’re okay.”

She stared at her hands, resting on her lap, and mumbled, “Thanks. Sorry for being so bitchy. I’m still really out of it.”

Jason snorted and ran his fingers through his hair. “That’s probably because you’re shot full of enough painkillers to tranquilize a fucking horse.”

Annabeth barked a laugh and said, “Pretty sure that would kill me.”

He studied her face for a moment before giving her a significant look. “You look like shit, by the way,” he said.

“Okay, that was uncalled for.”

“He got you real good, didn’t he?” Jason said, a hint of admiration in his voice. “Never seen you so bruised up before. Must’ve been a hell of a fight.”

A part of her wanted to protest that it was because she had been so out of practice, but, although she would never admit it out loud, Annabeth wasn’t sure she would’ve been able to win if she had been at her best anyways.

“It was,” she admitted quietly.

“I know you’re probably worried about him, but you can rest easy. At least for now. He’s being treated here at the hospital too, although I’ve been told his injuries aren’t nearly as bad as yours. Apparently, he’s been fairly well behaved so far, but I’m not sure how long that’ll last. I can’t stay for long – they need me in New Rome in a week – but I will keep an eye on him until you recover,” Jason explained.

Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief and sank back farther into her bed. “That’s good news,” she said. “Thanks for doing that.”

“So what happened exactly? I haven’t been able to get a straight answer from anyone. Although, I suspect that that’s because they don’t have a clue about what happened either,” Jason said, the hint of an accusation creeping into his voice.

“I know, I know, I should’ve told someone about what was going on, but there was a lot on my mind, so it didn’t really occur to me at the time,” Annabeth said, trying her best to sound apologetic.

Jason nodded, seemingly satisfied with her display of penitence, and leaned back in his seat while he listened to Annabeth relate what had happened since Percy’s arrival at camp. There were parts where he raised his eyebrows and parts where he clenched his jaw, but he didn’t otherwise interrupt her, something she was grateful for. More than anyone else she knew, Jason had the rare capacity to listen to people. It was what made him so good at his job as New Athens’s ambassador to New Rome.

When she finished, he shook his head and said, “I came to New Rome a few days after Percy was driven out of the city, and let me tell you: it was not pretty, Annabeth. It was utter carnage there. Took them nearly two months to fix all the property damage, not mention all the people that he seriously hurt or killed.”

When she was silent, he leaned forward, his hands clasped in his lap, and said gently, “Look, I know you beat him and everything, but from what I’m hearing, it sounded like you were lucky not to get killed. I’m not sure that losing makes him any less of a threat. You haven’t seen the bodies he left behind in his wake in New Rome. He cannot stay here.”

Annabeth shifted in her seat and said, “I– I understand where you’re coming from, but I don’t think that he’s going to try anything.”

“What makes you so sure?” Jason demanded. “You said it yourself – he’s like a wild animal. How long do you think it’ll take before he decides to hurt someone?”

“I don’t know how to explain it, but I think he was trying to figure out where he fit into all this,” she said slowly.

When Jason raised an eyebrow, Annabeth said, “Like, I think he wanted to know where he fit into the pecking order. Since I beat him, he knows that there’s someone stronger than him, someone he _has_ to listen to.”

“I get that you feel that way, but I still think it’s too risky to let him stay,” Jason said, his brow furrowed.

Annabeth made a sound of frustration and grit her teeth when her body screamed out in pain as she sat up straighter.

“He came from the Wolf House, right? Well, I’m not an expert or anything, but wolves live in packs, and packs have their own hierarchies. At the top, there’s an alpha that is in charge and then there are betas that obey the alpha,” Annabeth explained.

Jason frowned and said, “So the fact that he challenged you for the right to be the alpha and lost makes him a beta? You think that’ll be enough for him to listen to you?”

Annabeth shrugged and said, “I don’t know, but if he’s been living with wolves for the last eighteen years, then he’s gotta have picked up some of their behavior.”

Jason didn’t look convinced. “It’s a good guess, but it’s still a guess.”

When Annabeth was silent, Jason sat back in his seat and shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t get why you’re so hesitant about this. As Camp Director, your responsibility is towards all the citizens in New Athens. If there is even the slightest risk to their safety, you are obligated to eliminate it, despite your personal feelings. That’s the burden of leadership.”

Annabeth squirmed in her seat and played with her fingers, unable to think of a way to argue with what he had said.

“I also hope you realize that there are other consequences to letting him stay here too. Like, I can guarantee that Reyna and the Romans won’t sit quietly knowing he’s being sheltered here. They’ll take it as an insult, and it could risk undermining the peace and trust we’ve worked so hard to establish over the last five years,” he argued.

He was right - every point Jason had made was perfectly valid. Even two weeks ago, she would’ve also been vehemently opposed to the idea of letting someone like Percy into camp, but there was still something, some part of her that she couldn’t explain, that silently opposed the idea. As absurd as it was, making Percy leave camp felt wrong.

He had been kicked out of New Rome already. If she chose to exile him as well, then he wouldn’t have anywhere safe to turn to. Leaving him out on his own was basically a death sentence. Annabeth knew without a fraction of a doubt that Percy would draw monsters to him like flies to honey. Even as strong as he was, it would be impossible to survive an endless onslaught forever. At some point, tiredness would get to him and he would let his guard down and that would be more than enough to get him killed.

Keeping him at camp risked the lives of everyone else that lived there, and she couldn’t, given her responsibilities, prioritize the safety of one person over the collective, especially not when it could incur the wrath of New Rome, but at the same time, the image of her first encounter with Percy flashed in her mind. She recalled how haunted and tense and, frankly, how scared he had looked. Percy knew as well as she did that he couldn’t last out there on his own forever. There was a reason he’d traveled the length of the entire country to get here after all.

Furthermore, there was something significant about him, although she couldn’t say what it was. The timing and nature of arrival in conjunction with his raw power and mysterious past all screamed to her that he was important somehow, and if she was the only person he might be willing to listen to, then she had an obligation to keep watch over him.

Annabeth sighed and said, “I understand where you’re coming from, and you are totally right, but I can’t throw him out to the wolves, no pun intended. If we force him out of camp, it’s as good as executing him. I’m not willing to hand out a death sentence so easily.”

Jason scoffed and said, “Annabeth, he’s a criminal! He has hurt and killed people, _innocent_ people. It’s not like you are being asked to turn your back on a normal demigod; he’s already proven beyond the benefit of a doubt that he is too dangerous to stay here. I can’t believe you, of all people, need to be convinced of that considering he nearly killed you!”

“You’re not wrong, but I can’t turn my back on someone who needs my help,” Annabeth said, shaking her head. “You know as well as I do what horrible things have been done in the name of the greater good. If I choose to forsake my sense of morality just because it’s convenient or the situation demands it, then having any morals at all becomes meaningless.”

Jason opened his mouth to say something more before he closed it and stared at her. “You really aren’t going to change your mind about this, are you?” he said quietly.

“I am not,” Annabeth affirmed.

“Even though this could blow up in your face spectacularly?”

“I’ll assume responsibility for whatever happens,” Annabeth said. “Besides, if I’m wrong, you can always tell me ‘I told you so’.”

“Well, let’s hope that day never comes,” Jason muttered.

“I’m a Daughter of Athena. We’re not usually known for being wrong,” Annabeth said, a half-smile on her face.

Jason shook his head in fond exasperation. “I’ve missed you, Annabeth,” he said.

“Me too,” she said, softening. “I take it Reyna is keeping you very busy.”

He breathed a laugh and said, “That’s a gross understatement. It feels like there’s always someone pissed off about something or another. I don’t know how she does it honestly.”

“She’s strong, stronger than either of us,” Annabeth admitted.

Jason nodded, but there was a look of concern on his face. “I worry about her,” he said, sighing. “She tries to do too much on her own. Has trouble depending on people. Like you, I guess.”

“I depend on you,” Annabeth noted.

His lips quirked into a smile. “Not nearly enough though.”

Annabeth cleared her throat and said, “How’s Piper?”

For the first time since he came into her hospital room, a genuine smile crossed Jason’s lips. “She’s good. We’re good. Busy, but we make time for each other,” he said.

“That’s good,” Annabeth said softly.

“Yeah,” Jason said, sounding distant.

“She dropped off some flowers earlier when I was asleep apparently,” Annabeth said, nodding to the bouquet on her bedside table.

“I’m surprised you could read her handwriting,” Jason said, grinning.

“I’ll be sure to let her know you said that,” Annabeth teased.

Jason laughed and looked like he was going to say something more when he stopped and fished his phone out of his pocket. He shot her an apologetic look and had a quick, hushed conversation. Once he was done, he stood up and pocketed his phone, looking suddenly weary.

“I have to get going,” Jason said with a wan smile.

“Duty calls?” Annabeth asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Duty calls,” he said, sighing. “Get better soon, Annabeth. I meant what I said earlier, you know? I’m here for you, so feel free to rely on me more.”

Annabeth nodded, her lips curled in a small smile, and watched as Jason made his way out the room, but he stopped between the doorway for a few seconds before turning to her.

“I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

He left before she could have a chance to respond, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

:::

A cold breeze blew against her face, rousing her in the middle of the night. Annabeth sat up groggily and looked to the window, which was now open even though she could’ve sworn it had been shut when she’d fallen asleep. It wasn’t raining anymore, but the wind was still strong, diffusing the earthy scent of petrichor into the sterile air of the hospital room. The curtains billowed, briefly obscuring the figure sitting on the window sill, staring at the moon. Annabeth froze when she realized that it was Percy and immediately scanned the room for anything she could use as a weapon.

“Relax,” Percy said, still not looking at her. “I’m not here to hurt you. Besides, if I wanted to, I wouldn’t have waited for you to wake up.”

“I wouldn’t put it past you to wait till I’m awake. Your moonlit silhouette suggests that you seem to have a penchant for theatrics,” Annabeth said, trying to keep her tone light.

“Theatrics, huh?” Percy snorted. “That’s amusing coming from someone who intentionally let herself get stabbed to win a fight.”

“I did what I had to,” Annabeth said carefully.

“You’re right. If you hadn’t taken such a risk, I would’ve killed you that night,” Percy said.

“I didn’t peg you for a sore loser.”

Finally, Percy turned to look at her and, as always, meeting his eyes froze her. “I know you’re not stupid enough to think you deserved to win that night. You’re lucky to still be alive, and you know it.”

There wasn’t any venom or heat in his voice. He spoke matter-of-factly, like he was simply relaying the truth of the matter, leaving no room for argument. Not that she could really disagree with him anyways. In her heart, she knew he was right.

“Is that why you’re here? To gloat?” Annabeth asked wearily.

He shook his head with a strangely nervous look on his face. When he spoke, he was unable to hide the quiver in his voice.

“Now that you’ve won, will you force me to leave?” Percy asked.

“That depends on you. Will you behave yourself if I let you stay?”

“I have no choice since I lost,” he said bitterly.

“I don’t know what you’re expecting, but I’m not going to like enslave you or something. I won’t ask anything of you that I don’t ask of anyone else,” Annabeth said. “You’re free to do as you wish as long as you don’t hurt anyone else.”  
Percy furrowed his brow, seemingly taken aback by her answer, and processed her statement in silence. “But I still have to obey you,” he said slowly.

“If that’s the way you see it.”

A stony look crossed his face as he pursed his lips, making her grit her teeth. Why couldn’t he see how far she was going for him?

“Look, everyone else around me wants you gone. They think you’re too dangerous to keep around. I am the only one in favor of letting you stay, so I need you to understand that I am not your enemy,” Annabeth said, trying not to sound as irritated as she felt.

Percy cocked his head to one side, looking thoroughly unconvinced, and tapped his chin with his index finger. “What if I just kill you right now?” he mused.

Annabeth gave him a cold smile, black rage rising in the pit of her stomach. “You can certainly try, you little shit,” she said, feeling strangely confident despite her injuries.

They stared at each other in silence for a while before Percy looked away and nodded tersely. “Very well,” he said. “I will do as you say.”

Immediately, the anger brewing inside her dissipated and left her feeling oddly pleased. “Good,” she said lightly. “Then there shouldn’t be a problem.”

There was a pause before Annabeth coughed surreptitiously and said, “Will that be all?”

Percy shook his head reluctantly, and when he spoke, there was noticeable frustration in his voice. “No, I also– I wanted to see you.”

Annabeth suppressed the urge to laugh once she saw the conflicted look on Percy’s face, and, despite the situation, found herself studying him instead.

Now that they weren’t trying to kill each other, she was finally able to properly look at him. Again, the word “beautiful” came to mind. His wavy, dark hair, long enough to tickle his eyebrows even after his haircut, was silky and smooth. The wind tousled his hospital gown, teasing her with a glimpse of his bare chest, taut muscle glistening like freshly fallen snow under the glow of the moon. The shocking, feral sea green of his eyes. Everything about him seemed to tempt her.

If only he wasn’t so young, she mused.

Annabeth caught herself and shook her head, trying to dispel that dangerous train of thought, afraid of where it might lead, and tried to focus. Even though he had said he didn’t come to hurt her, it would still be foolish to let her guard down.

She cleared her throat and asked, “And why is that?”

He looked down thoughtfully for a few moments before he said, “Because– Because we are the same. We both have monsters inside us. We would both rather die than submit to someone.”

His words struck a chord in her, confirming the vague sense of kinship she had felt since she’d first seen him. At the same time, she didn’t miss that there was also a tense contradiction in what he had said.

“Yet you yielded,” Annabeth said.

“Yet I yielded,” Percy agreed begrudgingly.

Annabeth frowned and tried to think of where he was going with this before a theory came to mind. “And you don’t know why?” she said.

He nodded, his eyes lighting up, and said, “I was prepared to die if I lost, but when the time came, I hesitated and I don’t know why.”

“It’s not strange to want to live,” Annabeth noted.

Percy withered in front of her and Annabeth couldn’t help feeling like she had just broken his trust. “I thought you of all people would understand,” he said quietly. “I guess I was wrong.”

“Wait! I do,” Annabeth said quickly, strangely desperate not to break whatever this newfound connection was between them. “I do understand.”

When he looked at her suspiciously, Annabeth licked her lips and continued, “The reason I won, the reason I took that crazy risk when we fought was because I couldn’t stand the idea of losing. I couldn’t tolerate the idea of submitting to another person. That was why I took your blade, knowing full well it might kill me, as long as it meant that I wouldn’t lose.”

Percy breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Yes, exactly. That’s why I can’t understand why I chose to surrender.”

There was a lull in the conversation as Annabeth reflected on what he had shared with her. Outside her window, a tree creaked in the wind. Eventually, Annabeth sighed and said, “I don’t really have answers for you.”

Percy shook his head and said, “I didn’t expect you to. I think I came here to confirm something.”

“Confirm what?” Annabeth asked, frowning.

The shadow of a smile crossed his lips, and Annabeth couldn’t help thinking it suited him better than the brooding look he usually wore.

“Confirm what I wonder?” Percy said lightly.

The breeze blowing into the room carried with it that familiar, haunting scent of cedar and elderberry. She probably had the opiates to thank for the fact that she had been unaware of the smell for so long despite Percy sitting so close to her. Still, Annabeth was surprised that it wasn’t overpowering her like she would have expected it to given his proximity. Instead, the sillage was present only ever so slightly, not so subtle that she wouldn’t have been able to detect it, but still weak enough to leave her wanting more.

Annabeth gripped her bedsheets hard as a sudden irresistible impulse to touch him washed over her. More than that, she wanted to possess him, to _dominate_ him. Every time she encountered that scent of his, it unhinged her just a little bit more. Annabeth prided herself in her self-control, but she knew that she was dangerously close to losing it at the rate that things were going.

Images flashed to mind of him handcuffed to her bed frame, blindfolded and gagged and gorgeous, as she fucked him into the mattress hard, her hands wrapped around his porcelain throat. She subtly rubbed her thighs against each other as a flood of want washed over her. Annabeth bit her lip and tried frantically to think of a distraction, anything to dispel the image from her head, but the more she tried, the more it took root there.

This was dangerous.

Christ, he was only _eighteen_. He was six years younger than her, almost the same age as her step-brothers, but her body already burned with arousal. Annabeth couldn’t remember the last time she felt so turned on by someone who hadn’t even touched her. She forced her gaze away from him and cleared her throat.

“If that’s all you need from me, you should leave. I want to get some rest,” Annabeth said, much sharper than she intended, desperate for any excuse to get him away from her before she did something stupid.

“Of course,” Percy said, but the tone in his voice suggested he knew she was hiding something from him.

The intensity of the scent swelled for a moment and then, just like that, he was gone, and the scent with him. She stiffened for a moment before taking in deep lungfuls of air, part of her desperate to see if she could still smell him while the other part was relieved she couldn’t.

Annabeth couldn’t fall asleep for the rest of the night. The self-loathing bubbling in her stomach made it far too difficult to relax.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope everyone enjoyed the chapter! the fic is a lot plot heavier than when i first thought of the concept. just wanted to write dom!annabeth but wound up having characters argue about utilitarianism somehow. i promise there will be smut next chapter. at least, that is the plan. parts of this chapter got perhaps a bit too philosophical but hopefully it was interesting to read.
> 
> anyhow, thank you for reading, and if you enjoyed please do drop a comment. it really helps maintain my motivation to continue my fics. i have a horrible tendency to give up on them otherwise, even though i know i shouldn't.
> 
> song i was listening to on repeat for this chapter: everything in its right place - radiohead


	4. virginal delights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is a wall of smut, so please skip it if that isn't your thing. consider yourself warned.

Annabeth looked up from her blueprints when she heard the sound of the bell tolling, signalling it was time for dinner. It was dark outside her office window now, even though it had been early in the afternoon when she’d initially sat down to work. With a sigh, she made some final notes on a scrap piece of paper before standing up and leaving her office.

The wound in her abdomen throbbed with pain as she did, just like it had for the past two weeks since she’d been discharged from the hospital. It wasn’t as excruciating as it once was, but she still hissed and gingerly ran her fingers along the top of the gauze pad taped over her stitches in a vain attempt to soothe the pain.

Annabeth had had her fair share of injuries over the years – it came with the territory of being a demigod, after all – but it was still frustrating to live in constant pain from the moment she woke in the morning till she mercifully fell asleep at night. The only moments of reprieve during her day came as she worked when her sheer focus kept the pain at bay.

Her boots clacked against the cobblestone road as she made her towards the dining pavilion. The path took her through the plaza at the heart of New Athens, and she took a moment to stop and appreciate the fountain, now that it was fully functional. It was made from marble, depicting three dryads standing in the center as water poured out of the vases they carried. The rush of falling water was music to her ears, and she felt a swell of pride course through her.

There was a familiar face sitting on a bench, looking at the fountain. Annabeth made her way over with a big grin on her face.

“Dominick!” she called.

The son of Hephaestus looked up and smiled when he saw Annabeth approaching. “Look who’s back from the dead,” he said.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “You’re being awfully dramatic. It was only a flesh wound.”

“A damn foolish thing is what it was,” Dominick said, snorting. “I’m glad you’re recovering.”

“Just because I’m injured doesn’t mean I’m not working on new blue prints to terrorize you with,” Annabeth teased, sitting beside him.

Dominick rubbed his beard, a disgruntled expression on his face, and grumbled, “You should be _resting_.”

“But that would be _boring_.”

He huffed a laugh and said, “Well, it’s good to know that near death experiences haven’t changed you.”

Annabeth shrugged. “I’ve been through worse.”

The look in Dominick’s eyes softened. “I know you have.”

Annabeth cleared her throat and shot him a small smile of gratitude. “Thanks for taking over while I was out with the fountain and everything. I appreciate it.”

Dominick waved his hand dismissively.

“It was nothing. If anything, I’m hoping this experience shows you the value of delegating. It’s foolish to try and build Rome on your own,” he said. “You should rely on us more. We all want New Athens to succeed as much as you do.”

Annabeth laughed and said, “You’ve gotten far more eloquent than I remember. What ever happened to being the strong and silent type?”

He shrugged and said, “This isn’t the time to be silent.”

There was a pause before Annabeth said, “Thank you for what you said. I’ll try to make a more conscious effort to not micromanage everything from now on.”

The bench squeaked once Dominick stood up with a grin on his face. “That’s all I ask for,” he said. “I know you have to head to the dining pavilion, so I don’t want to keep you any longer. Keep me posted on how you’re doing and if there’s anything I can do to help.”

Annabeth nodded and waited a few minutes after Dominick’s departure before continuing on her way, but the warm glow in her stomach faded rapidly the closer she got to the pavilion. She found herself clenching and unclenching her fists, dread welling up inside her, and by the time she arrived at the pavilion her heart was almost jack-hammering in her chest. Immediately, her eyes scanned all the tables in search of him without her consent until she spotted Percy sitting alone, like always, at one of the tables at the edges of the pavilion, much to her dismay.

Not for the first time, she cursed herself for taking on the mantle of Camp Director. Her position made her presence at the pavilion necessary during lunch and dinner times. Honestly, Annabeth wanted nothing more than to retreat to the confines of her apartment so she could whip up a salad, maybe pour herself a glass of bourbon, and plop down on her favorite armchair, swaddled in blankets, so she could watch something mindless on Netflix.

Although she would never admit it aloud, Annabeth had done her damndest to stay the fuck away from Percy after her discharge from the hospital. The night he had snuck into her hospital room had only cemented the truth that she could not be around him if she didn’t want to do something stupid, something she would regret.

In fact, since her discharge, Annabeth had only spoken to him once directly to discuss his living arrangements. She briefly toyed with the idea of letting him stay in the Hermes cabin until he was claimed before realizing that was a recipe for disaster, so she had instead instructed him to stay at the Big House until then.

However, because of her position as director she was forced to see Percy twice a day for lunch and dinner, and of course that meant that obscene scent of his would unerringly find a way to waft over to her like the world’s slowest heat seeking missile. Every single day was a battle as her willpower wrestled her growing urges, and each day her willpower grew closer to losing. It had gotten to the point where Annabeth could no longer recall what she had had for lunch, let alone what it tasted like, even earlier that same day because every ounce of her focus was on repressing her growing obsession with Percy.

There was something about him that she found irresistible, something that eroded her self-control. On more than one occasion, she found herself staring out her office window, observing him as he sat at the beach and watched the waves lick the shore for hours at a time. He rarely spent time around other campers, but, once or twice, she had seen Percy coaxing the Naiads in the canoe lake into conversing with him.

Every time she caught herself staring, frustration and shame would bubble in the pit of her stomach, and it just got worse with each passing day. Percy, on the other hand, seemed blissfully unaware of Annabeth’s growing anguish. He would just sit alone and finish his meal quickly before disappearing again while Annabeth was forced to give herself mental pep talks to keep from fucking his brains out in front of everyone in the dining pavilion.

Tonight was no different unfortunately. After Annabeth took her seat, she had to push all thoughts of him out of her mind so she could nod politely when the other campers spoke to her, a terse smile on her face. A son of Ares asked her about organizing a game of capture the flag for that weekend after a daughter of Demeter inquired about the logistics of opening a city garden.

Somehow, in the midst of that bombardment, Annabeth noticed a daughter of Hermes walking towards Percy’s table with a determined expression on her face. Annabeth ground her teeth together and fought the urge to intercept her and turn her away. Recently, she had begun to notice the wayward glances and hushed conversations the female campers had amongst themselves as they stared at Percy, like wolves looking at a piece of meat.

It was the scent, Annabeth assumed. If it was strong enough to threaten _her_ self-control, none of the other girls in camp stood a chance.

Annabeth tuned out whoever was talking to her and watched Percy turn to the girl after she tapped his shoulder, a look of mild bemusement on his face. She couldn’t hear what they said to each other, not this far away, but Annabeth found herself digging her nails into her palm as she watched them.

Percy was _hers_. No one else was allowed to have him.

Eventually, the girl bowed her head before returning to her table with a somewhat dejected look on her face, much to Annabeth’s satisfaction, but the feeling faded when Annabeth noticed Percy staring at her. When their eyes met, Percy raised his eyebrows, the ghost of a smirk tugging at his lips, which made Annabeth’s skin heat up and prickle, knowing she’d been caught red-handed.

The rest of dinner passed by in a blur. Percy vanished at some indeterminate point in the night, but Annabeth wasn’t sure whether or not to be grateful for that. On her way back to her apartment, Annabeth wracked her brain for solutions to neutralize that ridiculous scent of his – it was what threatened her most of all. Without it, she stood a much better chance of maintaining her self-control.

With a sigh, Annabeth checked her mailbox before taking the elevator up to her floor. Perhaps a child of Hecate could cast a spell on her to make her immune to the scent or maybe a child of Hephaestus could build a contraption that dispelled it. The method was irrelevant as long as it achieved its intended effect.

Once she arrived at her floor, Annabeth was about to make her way down the hallway to her room when she froze at the sight of Percy leaning against her front door. How did he know where she lived? One hand immediately curled around the hilt of her dagger as she stared at him, heart racing in her chest. At the very least, with this much distance between them she would have enough time to react if he chose to attack.

“What’re you doing here, Percy?” she asked carefully.

Percy pushed off the door and stepped towards her. Annabeth had to quell her instinct to step away from him and forced herself to hold her ground instead.

“I think you know _exactly_ why I’m here, Annabeth,” Percy said softly.

Annabeth licked her lips and tried frantically to formulate a response, but nothing was coming to mind. At this proximity, she was exposed to the full brunt of that maddening scent of his, and it was rapidly eroding what little was left of her self-control.

“Do you want to explain why you’re trying so hard to avoid me? You’re doing a very bad job of it though by the way. Don’t think I haven’t noticed all those times you’ve stolen glances at me during dinner,” Percy said.

“You know why. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here.”

Percy smirked and said, “I still want to hear you say it.”

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. “There’s no point – nothing can happen between us.”

Percy raised an eyebrow. “And what exactly is stopping you?”

“Common fucking sense for one thing,” Annabeth snorted. “Also, I don’t fucking trust you. In case you don’t remember, you nearly killed me, for Christ’s sake!”

“I gave you my word-”

“And I’m just supposed to believe you?” Annabeth hissed. “All because you gave your word?”

“Yes, that’s the whole point of making a promise,” Percy said slowly, like she had said something incredibly stupid.

Annabeth resisted the urge to scream. “Look, I’m twenty four years old – to me, you’re practically a child, so there’s nothing to discuss here. You need to leave. _Now_.”

Percy met her gaze for a few seconds before shrugging. “If that’s what you want.”

For a few seconds, Percy stood unmoving and matched her gaze. He wasn’t backing down. The harsh fluorescent light in the hall hummed like a droning bee, adding to the tension between them. Annabeth desperately hoped he wouldn’t continue to argue with her – she wasn’t sure she had the willpower to refuse him again, a realization that only served to inspire more self-disgust.

_He’s only 18. He’s the same age as Bobby and Matthew. Send him away. Why the fuck are you still considering this? What the fuck is wrong with you?_

It was hard to say how long they both stood there, holding their ground, but eventually Percy shrugged and turned to leave. In the next instant, Annabeth’s body moved faster than her brain could think. There was thud as she pressed Percy against her front door and she surged up to kiss him. His lips were softer than she would have expected, his inexperience showing in the awkward way he kissed her back, but that only served to inflame Annabeth’s lust.

She would be his first and she was going to _ruin_ him.

The thought sent a wave of heat rushing through her. Annabeth pressed her knee in between his legs and tangled her fingers in his hair possessively. She jerked his head to the side, harder than she should have, and sucked bruises along the column of his neck, coaxing a strangled groan out of him.

“Shhh,” Annabeth murmured, voice slurring as she covered his mouth with her hand.

Percy’s hand scrabbled for purchase against the door but found none, making Annabeth grin. Served him right, flaunting that intolerable scent of his at every opportunity, tormenting her for weeks.

Annabeth slid a hand beneath the hem of his jeans and palmed his cock roughly, which was already straining against his boxers, and delighted in the way his legs trembled from the effort of keeping him upright.

Jesus, she was already so wet, and they’d barely even started.

They both stumbled into her dark apartment when she somehow managed to prize the door open, kicking it shut behind her. Her fumbling fingers scrambled to find the lightswitch just in time for her to crowd Percy against the door and claim his lips again. Annabeth tangled her fingers in his hair and cradled to the back of his head, pulling him down to deepen the kiss.

She was fortunate that Percy was such a quick learner. Within minutes, he found the sensitive spot behind her left ear that always made her go crazy as well as how much her body responded when he softly traced the curve of her spine with his fingers. Annabeth had armed herself with a better idea of Percy’s preferences as well, noting how he liked having his hair pulled and when she clawed at his upper back, between his shoulder blades.

It’s hard to say how long they stayed there, exploring with their lips and tongue, trying to coax reactions out of the other like they were sparring again. Percy was already beginning to resist the control Annabeth had initially claimed, but she’d expected as much. She’d known from the moment they’d traded blows in the hospital that Percy would not be tamed so easily, but that was exactly what Annabeth craved. To her, there was nothing better than forcing a strong will to submit.

They stepped away from each other for a moment in an effort to steady their heavy breathing. A grin split across Annabeth’s face once she saw how debauched Percy looked. He was gorgeous like this: hair mussed, pupils blown wide with desire, lips swollen, neck littered with red bites. His body was so _responsive_ , more so than anyone Annabeth had ever been with.

Annabeth pulled him by the hand towards the living room, knowing they wouldn’t make it to the bedroom, and watched hungrily as Percy desperately shucked his shirt. She got rid of hers as well, leaving her in a bra and jeans, while Percy threw his jeans into some dark corner of her living room. Annabeth pushed him onto the sofa and climbed atop his lap, her hands slowly smoothing down his chest. The hunger in Percy’s gaze as he looked up at her while pressing a kiss to the valley of her breasts, his pupils completely dilated, sent a shiver down her spine.

“This is your last chance,” Annabeth said, breathing heavily. “If you want to stop, now is the time.”

Annabeth could feel the low rumble of Percy’s laughter through his chest. “What in the world makes you think I want to stop?” he asked, lips brushing against her breasts.

Annabeth framed his face in her hands and stared into his eyes. “I have to hear you say it. Tell me you want this.”

Instead of answering, Percy teased one of her breasts out from under her bra and sucked, making Annabeth bite her lip in an effort to keep from crying out.

“Percy,” she groaned, unable to mask her exasperation.

“Fine, I want this,” he said, a challenge glinting in his eyes. “Happy?”

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. She would get rid of that arrogant attitude in due time.

She rutted against him and smirked when she felt him harden under her. Percy stared at her, slack-jawed, as she continued mercilessly rolling her hips against him. As desperate as she was to get rid of her pants, she wanted to make Percy suffer more.

His hands reached for her hips in an attempt to stop her, but Annabeth swatted his hands away. If she wasn’t so drunk with lust, she might’ve punished him for even trying to stop her, but tonight she was too far gone to bother with dominance. That could wait for next time.

Annabeth bit and tugged at Percy’s earlobe, eliciting a broken moan that went straight to her cunt. The little noises and whimpers he made stoked her lust for him to a feverish degree.

She stood up and desperately stripped out of her pants, unable to delay it any longer. Her bra and underwear were next to go. Percy discarded his own boxers, and Annabeth took the chance to study him, now that he was fully naked, visually tracing the beautiful lines of his body and the lean muscle he’d formed.

Annabeth pushed him down onto the sofa and climbed over his face, smirking when Percy’s hands instantly went to support her hips.

She tangled her fingers in his hair again. “Lick,” she commanded.

A broken moan escaped her lips as Percy dragged the flat of his tongue along the outside of her cunt. Fuck, that felt good. He repeated the motion a few more times, stoking the fire inside her higher and higher, but it still wasn’t enough.

“Use your tongue inside too,” Annabeth instructed.

When Percy obeyed, Annabeth’s eyelids fluttered shut, and her grip on his hair tightened. It was probably hurting him, but she was too far gone to care. For his first time eating someone out, Percy was doing better than she’d expected. It didn’t take her long to settle on a rhythm and start riding his face. As she grew closer to the edge, Annabeth removed a hand from his hair and rubbed her clit to provide the final boost she needed to cum.

“Fuck, I’m cumming,” Annabeth moaned.

Percy’s hands wrapped around her ass and pulled her closer down onto his mouth as her thighs clamped down on either side of his face. Annabeth jerked hard on Percy’s hair, arching her back, a long moan escaping her as she came. She held onto the sofa’s frame to maintain her balance while her hips spasmed as she rode out the aftershocks of her orgasm.

Once they were done, she moved and sat back atop Percy’s stomach and tried to steady her heavy breathing. Annabeth could feel Percy’s cock straining against the curve of her ass and relished in how dark Percy’s eyes were.

“Not bad for your first time,” Annabeth said, panting.

Percy rolled his eyes and sat up, pressing their chests together. She could feel the outline of his scars against her skin, and she was sure that he could feel her own as well. Neither of them were conscious about – if anything it was a testament to how strong they were as individuals. Percy’s fingers ghosted over the gauze pad taped to her abdomen.

“You sure you’re not hurting yourself?” Percy asked, smirking. “This might be too hard on your elderly body.”

Annabeth narrowed her eyes and shoved him half-heartedly. “I’m not that old, you asshole,” she grumbled.

When Percy laughed, Annabeth could feel it through her skin. “Then does that mean you have enough stamina to keep going?”

Annabeth opened her purse and fished out a condom and tore it with her teeth. “Men shouldn’t talk about stamina.”

She reached behind her and rolled the condom onto his cock before wrapping her hand around it, smirking when Percy’s eyes fluttered shut.

“They never do last very long – most of them are only good for one round.”

Annabeth slowly jerked him off and leaned in to whisper in his ear. “I doubt you’ll even last five minutes inside me.”

Percy glowered at her. “Is that a challenge?”

“Challenge implies you stand a chance of winning, which you clearly don’t.”

A growl rumbled through Percy’s chest, making Annabeth’s smile widen. Good, he was getting worked up. Annabeth found that she often got the best sex out of men once she provoked them.

Percy squeezed her ass hard before he lifted her above his cock and thrust into her. They both groaned in unison and desperately pressed up against each other.

God, it felt so good to be filled.

Annabeth brushed his hair out of his eyes and pressed a messy kiss to his lips. They kissed languidly, their tongues dancing around one another, as she got adjusted to his size. Then, without warning, Annabeth raised herself up and sank back down onto him.

“Fuck,” she muttered.

Percy’s grip on her hips tightened when she circled her hips on her way down. He dropped a kiss to one of her breasts before reaching up to knead the other one, making Annabeth groan. She scratched at his upper back, etching red lines into his skin, and slowly began to ride him.

He managed to work a particularly broken moan out of her when he tugged on a nipple with his teeth. She could feel him smirking against her skin as he sucked it again to soothe the sting.

Annabeth pushed him onto the couch so that she could accelerate her pace, partially to prove he couldn’t last five minutes but mostly because she needed more. Percy tried to sit up again, but she stayed low on him and held him down by the shoulders, sucking a bruise under his chin and making him grunt.

She could feel heat pooling inside her already, the promise of another orgasm on the horizon, and chased after it with reckless abandon, setting a punishing rhythm atop him. The maddening scent of his was stronger now than it had ever been before and seemed to egg her on to go faster and faster. The lewd sounds of them fucking filled her half-dark living room, and the sofa squeaked beneath them, keeping time with her pace.

Percy’s body stiffened a few minutes later, which spurred Annabeth on faster. “Aah, I-I’m gonna,” he stammered.

Annabeth bit his earlobe, pulling with her teeth, before whispering into his ear, “Do it. Show me how you cum.”

Percy wrapped a hand behind Annabeth’s head to anchor himself, his fingers knotting in her hair, as he released a strangled groan.

“Annabeth,” he moaned.

Annabeth felt his cock grow inside her before Percy froze, his eyes screwing shut as his back arched up off the sofa. He was almost completely silent as he came, but Annabeth could feel his entire body quivering beneath her. She’d never seen anything as beautiful as Percy’s face contorted by pleasure, completely slaw-jawed, weaving his fingers into her hair like she was the only thing keeping him tethered to Earth.

The sight itself was enough to send Annabeth over the edge as well. She bit down on his shoulder to keep from crying out, which made his hips jerked upward involuntarily. Her fingernails cut into his upper back, leaving red crescent shaped marks in his skin, while her cunt clenched around his cock desperately.

When she finally came, Annabeth’s entire body felt completely drained, leaving her panting atop Percy’s chest. Annabeth deeply breathed in the smell of sweat, sex, and Percy’s troublesome odor scent that hung in the air. She felt Percy’s hand brush aside the strands of hair that lay matted against her forehead, almost tenderly, and felt her face flush.

Annabeth looked up at him, her head still flat against his chest, and smiled softly when he met her eyes.

“I think that was more than five minutes,” she said coyly. “Well done.”

“Strangely enough, I didn’t really have enough time to check my watch in the middle of all that. Funny, huh?” Percy said.

Annabeth pressed a kiss to his chest and said, “Given how hard I just fucked your brains out, I’m a little insulted that you can still mouth off to me.”

Percy’s ensuing laughter brought a smile to Annabeth’s lips. “Are you _always_ this arrogant?”

“It’s not arrogance if it’s true,” Annabeth said, shrugging. “I fucked you well, and you know it.”

Percy blinked. “That’s fair.”

They lay there in silence for a while. It had been a long time since Annabeth had had such a good fuck. Alyssa and her other partners were fun, sure, but there was just something about Percy. Already her mind raced with all sorts of possibilities.

They hadn’t gotten into any of the good stuff tonight, which fine considering it was Percy’s first time and all, but going forward, Annabeth wasn’t going to be this easy on him. Images flooded into her mind of him bound and blindfolded, sobbing as she edged him for hours, begging her to let him cum. Images of him with his hands tied behind his back, that cute ass of his pointing straight up in the air, red and ready for her, littered with welts from her riding crop, as she fastened her strap-on.

_Fuck._

Annabeth bit her lip and rubbed her thighs together discreetly, already feeling heat pool in her stomach. She looked up and noticed Percy’s eyelids were drooping as he resisted the urge to fall asleep. Annabeth traced his scars with her fingers as a small bit of disappointment arose in her – she really would’ve liked to go for a second round, but it was understandable given that it was his first time.

“ _Not tonight. Next time,_ ” she promised herself. “ _Next time, I’ll get to have some real fun with him._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, this'll probably get me hella kinkshamed, and i will most certainly deserve it. anyhow, dom!annabeth is the love of my life and i hope you can understand why now. thank you for all the comments on the last chapter - i am super grateful for it! if you enjoyed this chapter, it would mean a lot if you dropped a comment - i worked really hard on this one!

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr! my username is knuffled
> 
> comments are greatly appreciated!


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